The former Leicester boss is favourite to return to the club where he won two League Cups

Martin O’Neill has been installed as the early favourite to become the next boss of Championship side Leicester City after the surprise departure of Sven-Goran Eriksson.

The Foxes are currently just two points off the play-off places but with only two wins in their previous five games – a run that included a dire 3-0 defeat against Millwall at the weekend – the Leicester owners saw fit to end Eriksson’s year-long reign.

Unsurprisingly, it’s O’Neill who leads the betting at 10/11.

O’Neill has joined Alan Curbishley – who is 20/1 for the Foxes job – in being amongst the favourites for every job that comes up in English football following his resignation from Aston Villa in August last year.

However, this time there appears to be a genuine belief that O’Neill will rejoin the club he managed from 1995 to 2000, winning them two League Cup titles along the way.

O’Neill is followed in the betting by former Nottingham Forest boss Billy Davies at 7/1 and current Leeds United manager Simon Grayson at 10/1.

Grayson has done a fantastic job with limited funds at Leeds, dragging them up from League One and establishing them as a promotion-chasing Championship side.

Leicester owners, the Raksriaksorn family, have far more cash available to them than Leeds and the lure of an open cheque book could prove hard to resist for the man who played with Leicester for five years in the nineties.

Out at 10/1 is former Cardiff City boss Dave Jones, who has been out of work since he was sacked as Bluebirds manager in May.

Mark Hughes is currently 5/1 and Lee Clark is also interesting at 5/1, while Leicester legend Gary Lineker is 100/1 to swap the Match of the Day sofa for the King Power Stadium dugout.